BRAVE's Princess Merida

Over the years, Pixar has dazzled and entranced families with their revolutionary computer generated offerings. We’ve seen tales of insects, monsters, rats, fish, superheroes, and automobiles. Their first mainstream characters, the toys Woody and Buzz, have been beloved household names since 1995’s TOY STORY. In recent years, Pixar has been pushing the animated genre to grow up a bit. WALL-E dealt with a bleak future of mankind, UP with the pains of losing a spouse, and now the violent BRAVE. 

BRAVE is a tale set in ye olden days of the rough-and-tumble clan kingdoms of the Scottish Highlands. The heroine of our story is Merida, a fiery princess with fiery red hair who, just as in every animated princess movie since THE LITTLE MERMAID, wants to resist tradition. Pixar’s ads for the film have sold the movie in this clichéd manner for months now, which is slightly unfair to the whole of the story.

(L-R) LORD MACINTOSH and his son, YOUNG MACINTOSH; MERIDA, WEE DINGWALL and his father, LORD DINGWALL; LORD MacGUFFIN and his son, YOUNG MacGUFFIN; QUEEN ELINOR and KING FERGUS.

Raised by a warrior king father and a mother who is the epitome of a proper queen, somehow Merida learned all the tricks for wilderness survival and none of royal finery. As a grown girl, she unrelentingly talks back to her parents, throws temper tantrums, and pouts when she doesn’t get her own way. She’s a bit of a brat, but granted, the biggest issue her mother springs on her is that the princes of neighboring clans will compete for her hand in mandatory marriage. During one of Merida’s pouts after running off into the forest, some ghostly creatures lead her to a witch who casts a spell that sets the wheels in motion for what helps change Merida’s attitude in the end. There are more details than that, but then that would spoil your own quest of discovery.

(L-R) MERIDA amongst the triplets: HARRIS, HUBERT and HAMISH; KING FERGUS and QUEEN ELINOR.

While the story sounds like something you have seen before, visually you have not. Pixar continues to set the bar for technical excellence in animated filmmaking. From the opening shot of a sweeping green kingdom by a glistening lake, to the close views of every bump in every stone and the shimmy of every blade of grass, the artists and technicians have created some nice shots for their portfolios. Merida’s mound upon mound of curly red hair entrances the eye with its nuances in color and movement. The various tones and textures of human skin helps create lush characters that fit into the complex imagined world they inhabit. The fur on wildlife is the best it could possibly be, even looking actually wet when it should. And the water – computer generated water is so very hard to pull off convincingly, yet Pixar’s water looks as though you could actually take a dip in it, or better yet, enjoy a few gulps from it.

The voice work was fun, but to an ear accustomed to American English, the Scottish brogue was sometimes indecipherable. Billy Connelly plays the rascally King Fergus with a wonderful gravelly voice perfect for both a warrior king and a mischievous heartwarming father. Emma Thompson’s Queen Elinor was actually hard to understand for the first 20 minutes or so of the movie, mostly due to her thick accent. Kelly Macdonald does a wonderful job with Merida, helping to create what is sure to be a character girls will enjoy meeting in Disney World for years to come. And for you Pixar fans, yes, John Ratzenberger (known as Cliff on CHEERS and Hamm to TOY STORY aficionados) continues his streak of voicing characters in every Pixar feature film to date.

"BRAVE" (L-R) LORD MacGUFFIN, LORD DINGWALL and LORD MACINTOSH.

While the voices are important to creating good characters, the physical designs and visual performance are key. The character designs are quite entertaining from the leads all the way down to the least significant background character despite the Scottish warriors bearing a tonal resemblance to rival studio Dreamworks’ Vikings in HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON. The lead humans had some nice acting, but the Pixar pixel pushers really went above and beyond with the wildlife. Merida’s horse was stunning, and the bears – oh my! Merida spends some time interacting with bears, and one in particular was imbued with such marvelous anthropomorphic qualities while maintaining her inner bearness. I can’t wait to see those scenes again.

Musically, Patrick Doyle’s score brilliantly lifts and enhances every scene in which it is used. A newcomer to Pixar whose last name is neither Newman nor Giacchino, Doyle last thrilled audiences with his notes for RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES and Marvel’s THOR. He has created a truly epic score fit for a Scottish king.

(L-R) KING FERGUS, QUEEN ELINOR and MERIDA.

Despite being a film that is fun to watch for teens and grown-ups, parents should know that BRAVE’s PG rating is generously low. I would have given it a PG-13. The film contains a plethora of violence (some of it comic, some not) from fist fights to sword play to archery. As the trailer alludes, there is a very big scary bear. There are ghosts, a witch, and there is nudity. Yes, for the first time ever in a Disney or Pixar animated movie, grown adult men walk by sans kilts doing their best William Wallace impressions. Even the children get on the naked train at the end of the film. This is as far from the kid-friendly CARS 2 as any mainstream American animated film could be.

Pixar continues to dazzle and entrance, so go and enjoy knowing what you now know. And if you happen to go wearing your own kilt, do the kiddies a favor and wear something underneath. After all, it’s what the tradition-resisting Merida would want.